By Arthur Stevens, Contributing Columnist and Louise Carr, Associate Editor[Health and fitness articles are reviewed by our team of Registered Nurses, Certified fitness trainers and other members of our Editorial Board.]

My urine is oily, what does this mean? My urine is deep orange, should I be concerned? What color is my urine if I have diabetes? Most of us study our urine, and are either relieved or secretly worried about what we see. This article is a handy reference to guide you through the various color changes of your urine, and lets you know what you should do about what you see.

Your urine is a byproduct of digestion. You drink water and other fluids. They enter your stomach, then your colon, where the small intestines take the water , mixes it with food and bacteria to break the food down. Excess water is then passed into your blood stream and then through to your kidneys, which use the water to help cleanse your blood of wast, toxins and impurities. Your kidneys then flush the water out thorough the uretha and it leaves your body as urine.

So urine, when every things goes right, is a combination of 95% water and 5% waste compounds from your kidneys. Every day, you urinate about 1.5 to 2.5 quarts of urine. Because you also lose about a glass of water just breathing out (which is why your breath is moist when you blow on a mirror or a window) and more than a quart as sweat, even if you are sedentary), it is easy to go into water deficit and end up with an abnormal urine color. By the time you feel "thirsty", you are already dehydrated.

Urine is supposed to be a pale yellow and, contrary to popular belief, odorless. Pungent urine usually mean that you need to drink more water.

Are You Dehydrated?

Is your urine a deep orange color? Are you producing less urine than normal? Does this mean you are dehydrated? Put simply, if more water and fluids are exiting your body than entering it, you will become dehydrated.

Dehydration happens if you don’t drink enough water, you lose too much water, or you suffer a combination of both problems. You may not be able to drink enough water because it isn’t available – when you’re busy and forget to take a drink on the road with you, or when you’re hiking in the countryside. Many situations cause you to lose too much liquid.

Diarrhea causes dehydration, as does vomiting which leads to a loss of fluids. When you sweat, you lose a significant amount of water, especially on hot and humid days. Add in intense physical exercise and you are likely to become dehydrated if you don’t take on extra water.

People with diabetes are at increased risk of dehydration due to increased urination. Many medications, such as antihistamines, diuretics, blood pressure medication and anti-psychotics such as lithium, as well as alcohol, increase your urination and therefore the risk of dehydration.

How much water should you drink every day? According to experts at the Biomedical Sciences Department at Aberdeen University, UK you need to drink between one and two liters of fluids every day to maintain a healthy hydration – you need more if any of these dehydration risk factors apply to you.

Symptoms and Remedies for Dehydration

The system of hydration in our bodies is complex but dehydration can be easy to spot. The first sign you’ll have of dehydration is thirst – by the time you’ve reached this point you need to take on more water because you are already slightly dehydrated.

Darker and decreased urine is another key symptom. How does dehydration affect you? Even small levels of dehydration can cause problems.

Dehydration causes headaches and fatigue, and a drop in alertness. A 2009 study from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston showed mild levels of dehydration (losses of between 1 percent and 2 percent of body water) were associated with a negative mood, fatigue and confusion. (Read more about common medical conditions that cause fatigue. )

When you become moderately dehydrated you may suffer a dry mouth, muscle weakness and dizziness and have few tears to shed when you cry. Dehydration can affect your movements and coordination. In fact, dehydration is directly linked to a decline in performance on the basketball court according to a 2007 study from Pennsylvania State University. Researchers looked at 17 adult males practicing basketball skills at various levels of dehydration and found as dehydration increased, their performance and level of skill decreased.

How can you treat dehydration? You must restore the fluid level in your body by drinking water, clear soups or sports drinks, or by sucking on ice or ice pops. Many people say you should avoid caffeine in drinks like coffee, tea and soda because caffeine makes dehydration worse. However, a 2011 study from Nutrition Communications, Front Lebanon, Cupar, UK found black tea is not significantly different from water in its ability to maintain hydration.

After diarrhea, you may need to rehydrate with water that contains salt and sugar. Many parents give their children “flat” carbonated drinks when they are recovering from vomiting and diarrhea as an alternative to rehydration salts or salted water. But 2008 research from Watford General Hospital, UK demonstrated flat sodas contain too much sugar and not enough salt.

While most cases of dehydration can be turned around by drinking more water and increasing your salt and glucose levels, some occurrences of severe dehydration need immediate medical attention in the form of intravenous fluids. Severe dehydration causes shriveled and dry skin, low blood pressure, rapid heart beat, fever, delirium and unconsciousness. If you regularly drink very little water, you are at risk of serious kidney problems and you are harming your digestive system and your heart. When your fluid levels are low, the volume of blood in your veins goes down and you have less available to send to your vital organs.

How Can You Prevent Dehydration?

Make sure you drink enough water throughout the day in order to prevent dehydration. Eat foods that have a high water content, like fruit and vegetables. When you’re heading for the gym, always put a bottle of water in your bag and don’t forget to drink from it - one liter of water per hour of hard exercise, according to the Biomedical Sciences Department at Aberdeen University. According to 2009 research from Indiana State University, a high number (80 percent of NCAA Division I football players and 50 percent of NFL players) of college and professional athletes start the season dehydrated and the situation worsens as they undertake strenuous workouts in training.

And keep an eye on how much your children are drinking. Kids are less able to tell when they’re becoming dehydrated so you need to make sure they take in enough fluids. Older people, too, are at increased risk of dehydration. A 2007 study from the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne warned that older people are at risk because their brains underestimate the amount of water they need to drink, and they consequently drink less than they need – a particular danger during hot weather.

Your Urine Color Gives Clues About Your Health

You can tell a lot about your health by the color, and the composition, of your urine. Many tests are being developed to screen for serious diseases by checking the urine.

According to 2011 research from Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, University Paris VI, France trained dogs are able to detect prostate cancer by sniffing urine samples. Volatiles organic compounds (VOCs) in urine have been proposed as cancer biomarkers and the study showed specially trained dogs could, after a two-year period of training, detect which samples contained the compounds.

And a 2011 study from the University of Georgia shows proteins excreted in urine indicate the presence of gastric cancer. Now the protein has been identified, a method where urine changes the color of an indicator – like a pregnancy test – to show its presence or absence will be developed.

A 2006 study from University of California, Los Angeles School of Nursing demonstrated the effectiveness of monitoring urine color to maintain the health of elderly patients. Researchers used a urine color chart to check hydration levels in residents of a nursing home and found the tool was a good method of assessing whether patients were at risk of dehydration.

Fava beans, aloe and rhubarb. Medical conditions such as liver cirrhosis and hepatitus and acute glomerulonephritis. Medications such as chloroquine and nitrofuratoin, primaquine, methocaarbamol. metronidosole and laxatives with cascara and senna.

See a doctor,to rule out porphyria or blood in your kidneys or lead or mercury poisoning

Oily

Fried and oily foods can cause oily drops in your urine.

Fred and oily foods.

Eat less oil. Some whole grains (brown rice, whole grain breads and cereal, quinoa can help to reduce oil in your stomach and in your urine.

Blue or Dark Green

"Blue diaper syndrome" (familial hypercalcemia) is a rare cause of blue urine. More common causes are dyes in medications such as Urised, Trac tabs, amitriptyline, Tagamet, indomethacin. Certain multivitamins can also turn urine blue

Asparagus

See a doctor if you are not on any of the medications which commonly turn urine blue.

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